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Discover the opportunities
posted on: Monday, January 01, 2007At a time when the mobile phone market is saturated, operators need to look at ways they can increase their competitive advantage by using cost-effective technologies to provide value-added services (VAS) and customer care for their customers.
One such technology is USSD, which is seen by many to be the forgotten gem in the GSM network. USSD technology can greatly improve accessibility to VAS and to customer self-care services through its menu browsing functions.
USSD capabilitiesUSSD is an existing underused technology, which could be used for a lot more than prepaid roaming and balance check. USSD offers mobile operators a relatively simple route towards a more impressive service suite and an opportunity to gain significant extra revenues. Applications based on USSD technology will allow for the provision of different kinds of content and services which will be available seamlessly to customers, even when roaming abroad.
In addition, USSD capability is a standard functionality in the GSM/UMTS networks and is available to almost all existing GSM/UMTS handsets, with no handset or SIM card upgrade necessary. Therefore, the potential of the pre-installed user-base for USSD is seen to be its single greatest asset.
Find your gems
For operators, using USSD Menu Browser (UMB) is a simple way to gain operational efficiency in their contact centres with subscribers able to resolve day-to-day requests themselves. USSD is an ideal cost-effective channel for operators as it uses the signaling channels of a GSM network to transmit information, whereas an IVR system utilises expensive voice channels.
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